Advance notification of new builds
In order to allow WvW players to make good decions about siege placement, assault timing, etc. we’re adding a new build pre-announcement. This will be in the form of a message broadcast to all players some time before the current build expires. Because this notification is tied to one of the final steps in our build process, and those final steps take a variable amount of time, we won’t be able to say exactly when the current build will expire. Instead, the message will provide a window of time in which the new build will become available.Alt+F4 is no escape
If someone that you’re fighting disconnects during combat (via Alt+F4, killing the client process, etc.) their character will be instantly killed, death penalties will be applied, and XP & loot will be handed out as usual.

No more insta-build walls & gates
Destroyed walls and gates will now rebuild when they reach 10% health rather than on the very first repair. This means that when attackers down a wall or gate defenders won’t be able to instantly rebuild it. Walls and gates which are destroyed can still be damaged if they have any health.

Breakout events
We’ve added a new event type to WvW called Breakout events which trigger when one or more teams have been pushed completely out of a map. They’re designed both to help players break out of severly camped portal keeps and to provide assistance in establishing a foothold in each map. Here’s what designer Matt Witter has to say about them:

Break Out Events are special WvW events that will happen when a team has lost control of all defensive structures, not counting supply camps. An NPC commander will appear in the team’s start area and an event will start that prompts players to gather around. Once enough players are in the commander’s presence he will summon his trusty dolyak to give all allies in the area full supply. He will then lead the charge to the nearby objective and give players protection and assist with building siege to assault the objective with. Those benefits, along with a defensive boon that he applies to all nearby allies, makes the attacking players a force to be reckoned with. Defenders will have their work cut out for them, as once the gate or wall piece is destroyed the commander will move to the tower lord inside and attack anyone in his path.

These changes are just a small part of what the WvW team has been up to lately. As you may have already heard, we’re hard at work on some larger updates that we plan to deliver in February. We’re not quite ready to talk about the details yet but as February gets closer we’ll start to reveal more of our secrets.
Happy Wintersday and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Thoughts?
Not sure how I feel about the changes to instant repair walls, but I like the breakout events.

There has been a common theme in the past 2 weeks where server A owns everything in boarderland A, B owns everything in B, and C owns everything in C. It's due to a lack of population across the board, so I think every server will get their fair share of breakout events. I hope this crap encourages people to spread out between the boarderlands, cause it is getting old zoning into sbi or SoS boarderland, and seeing only 3 people from JQ on the map (i'm sure it is the same between all servers now though).

There has been a common theme in the past 2 weeks where server A owns everything in boarderland A, B owns everything in B, and C owns everything in C. It's due to a lack of population across the board, so I think every server will get their fair share of breakout events. I hope this crap encourages people to spread out between the boarderlands, cause it is getting old zoning into sbi or SoS boarderland, and seeing only 3 people from JQ on the map (i'm sure it is the same between all servers now though).

From what I notice it's always nobody on JQ BL, majority on SoS BL, and few on home BL. Guess we like being on the offense more.

Nice, outmanned people don't have to deal with so much suck now. At the same time, the wall thing is going to take out a bit of cheese that wasn't really game breaking but lame. The alt-f4 thing is a creative way to deal with something else that is lame. I was wondering how they could deal with it. My thought every time I saw a complaint about it was "What do you want them to do? Reach through the screen and break a person's fingers?"

Alt+F4 is no escapeIf someone that you’re fighting disconnects during combat (via Alt+F4, killing the client process, etc.) their character will be instantly killed, death penalties will be applied, and XP & loot will be handed out as usual.

Finally, thank god. People who use this mechanic should die in a fire. *OH NOES YOU CANT GET MY BADGES!!*

Notification and Alt+F4 solutions: awesome. Although at this point I'm wondering if the Alt+F4 thing applies only to characters who are downed, or to ANYONE who disconnects while in combat mode. While I'm sure some people do that, I know I've lagged out enough times during a pitched fight that it'll annoy the crap out of me if I'm going to die and suffer armour damage for disconnects I have no control over.

Wall: Don't know yet. I've never seen it as a problem, personally, but I guess we'll see...

Breakout: Nice idea in theory, but I'll wait to see how it works in the field. It'll either be really really good for the side that's been pushed off the map, or really really good for the enemy as they rake in badges. As above, I guess we'll see, but I'm hoping this one works.

Hopefully servers don't just leave one opposing tower for the enemy to prevent break out events. They sound like a lot of fun!

That accomplishes the same purpose as having the breakout event, and actually makes it worse for that server. If they just leave that tower, eventually it will get upgraded and be hard to take. If they take the tower, upgrade it and then defend it from the NPC/attackers then that will give more points.

Anet is attempting to give servers some ability to maneuver and fight on an enemy BL. I like this change.

Notification and Alt+F4 solutions: awesome. Although at this point I'm wondering if the Alt+F4 thing applies only to characters who are downed, or to ANYONE who disconnects while in combat mode. While I'm sure some people do that, I know I've lagged out enough times during a pitched fight that it'll annoy the crap out of me if I'm going to die and suffer armour damage for disconnects I have no control over.

Wall: Don't know yet. I've never seen it as a problem, personally, but I guess we'll see...

Breakout: Nice idea in theory, but I'll wait to see how it works in the field. It'll either be really really good for the side that's been pushed off the map, or really really good for the enemy as they rake in badges. As above, I guess we'll see, but I'm hoping this one works.

It specifically says shutting down the client process via Alt+F4 etc while fighting. The way it reads, if you are in combat when you disconnect.

Arenanet helping people out telling them the better time to siege and placement of siege equipment. Lame.

A server needing a breakout event because their server isn't playing. Lame.

aka dumbing it down and making it easier. if you can't figure out the write time to siege, or can't watch the time on the map, then you're an idiot. if your server needs a breakout event. then that sucks for you and you should find a new pvp server or rally the troops on your own.

Arenanet helping people out telling them the better time to siege and placement of siege equipment. Lame.

A server needing a breakout event because their server isn't playing. Lame.

aka dumbing it down and making it easier. if you can't figure out the write time to siege, or can't watch the time on the map, then you're an idiot. if your server needs a breakout event. then that sucks for you and you should find a new pvp server or rally the troops on your own.

If they are making it easier for one side, then they must necessarily be making it harder for the other side(s). So the argument doesn't stand that they are dumbing it down. Maybe the real objection is that it will now be HARDER to dominate?

if you can't figure out the write time to siege, or can't watch the time on the map, then you're an idiot.

Either I'm misunderstanding you or you're not understanding what this change is for. It's so you don't start an attack on a keep and drop a bunch of siege 2 minutes before a new game build, which up till now, WvW players received like a 30 second warning then kicked to Lion's Arch. This change will allow WvW players a little bit of advanced planning around those inconvenient game build updates.

Arenanet helping people out telling them the better time to siege and placement of siege equipment. Lame.

A server needing a breakout event because their server isn't playing. Lame.

aka dumbing it down and making it easier. if you can't figure out the write time to siege, or can't watch the time on the map, then you're an idiot. if your server needs a breakout event. then that sucks for you and you should find a new pvp server or rally the troops on your own.

How is helping people learn the game in a limited fashion lame? We should hope that new people join the game all the time. A high learning curve for new people is not going to make WvW better.

Breakout events encourage people to go to the BLs. I only fight on BLs, and when I go to an opponent BL it can be hard to create traction. I can play for a couple of hours only flipping the 2 supply camps because we lack people. Getting a bit of traction on the map means a few more people might show up and make the map interesting. How is that lame?

The breakout events seem to be more aimed at helping attacking teams rather then defending teams on the BLs. Right now in the TC, CD, FA fight the BLs tend to be the color of the team that owns them most of the time. It was even worse when we played TD, YB, FA.

Complaining about a game just to complain is lame. Complaining without good reasons backing it up is lame. Going to forums for a game you hate is lame.

Mostly positive changes (especially the wall one, because it will stop cretins funneling supply into the Treb'ed wall at bay), however the "break-out" mechanic is in the "wait-and-see" camp for me at the moment. It could be interesting change to the meta, and as Aso mentioned earlier it will force a lot more three kingdom type situations which could bring both a positive or negative changes in terms of server balance.

The force-logging changes will definitely improve my badge-collection, seeing as it seems every third guy I find escorting a dolyak slams Alt+F4 when they are going to be defeated (I'm not going to call out specific guilds that seem to do this a lot). We'll just have to wait and see how this pans out.

*Note: Making the dynamic of the maps is not making it any easier, if anything it will make conflicts even more brutal considering that there will be more 2v1 situations (although in a three-way competition this is to be expected). Therefore I don't see where "dumbing it down" comes into play.

Some guys like to argue for the sake of argument, but in all it seems to be a step in the right direction.